For LGBT refugees from the Middle East, it takes two years, minimum, for resettlement under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Even after they leave Syria, legal, safe employment is not readily available; some return home, sick of waiting. Still others are assaulted, even killed, while waiting for relocation—victims of hate crimes.

As ISIS destroys precious monuments and artifacts, digital activists are establishing the New Palmyra Project to preserve Syria’s history, and maybe—just maybe—free its founder, Bassel Khartabil, from prison.

Rather than live to see their families enslaved or killed, the four women eulogized in this moving collection—mothers, students and activists—took up arms to defend their hometown against the ravages of ISIS.